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(Photo by Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle), (Photo by Gallo Images / Papi Morake) and Nthimotsi Mokhesi (Photo by Gallo Images / Papi Morake)
The high-profile arrests of several key figures in a contentious R255m asbestos audit agreement may be the clearest sign yet that South Africa’s era of impunity is over. Scorpio learned that the Hawks arrested several people involved in the contract, including Gauteng high-flying businessman Edwin Sodi and senior former government officials.
The alleged masterminds of a scheme in which the Free State Human Settlements Department (FSHS) disbursed more than 200 million rand for an illegal asbestos audit project have been arrested.
Scorpio learned that the Crime Priority Investigation Directorate, or the Hawks, arrested businessman Edwin Sodi, former FSHS department head Nthimotse ‘Tim’ Mokhesi and former national director general of human settlements Thabane Zulu on Wednesday.
It is understood that the Hawks also detained other individuals, but Scorpio has not been able to confirm this. We will update this story as more information becomes available.
The asbestos deal, since August 2019, has received considerable attention at the State Capture Investigation Commission. The latest development marks the first arrests related to a matter brought before Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, chairman of the commission.
The arrests relate to a contract that the FSHS awarded in late 2014 to a joint venture between Sodi’s company, Blackhead Consulting, and Diamond Hill Trading, a company that had been owned by murdered businessman Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani.
Although the contract for the asbestos audit was valued at R255 million, FSHS ended up paying the joint venture R230 million between the end of 2014 and August 2016.
This reporter’s book, Gangster status, first revealed details of a suspicious spreadsheet that Mpambani had created before Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill began receiving their first payments from the Free State housing department.
The spreadsheet detailed what appeared to have been suspicious payments that the joint venture intended to make to various actors involved in the saga, including top government officials.
The letters ‘AM’ are among several initials included in the spreadsheet. Documents and leaked emails from the late Mpambani’s companies showed that the office of the then Free State Prime Minister Ace Magashule had been in contact with Mpambani on several occasions during and after the asbestos project. On more than one occasion, Magashule’s personal assistants requested money from Mpambani after the joint venture received payments from the FSHS. An email showed that these requests had been made following Magashule’s instructions.
The Zondo Commission later learned that Sodi had paid 600,000 rand to a car dealer as a deposit for a Range Rover purchased by Zulu, a former director general of the national human settlements department. The former department of Zulu played a key role in obtaining approval to transfer a previous asbestos audit contract from the Gauteng human settlements department to its counterpart in the Free State.
Evidence recently presented to the commission also details a R650,000 contribution that Sodi had made to a property that Mokhesi purchased in Bloemfontein. Mokhesi was the FSHS Head of Department (HOD) at the time he awarded the asbestos audit contract to the Sodi and Mpambani joint venture.
A Public Protector report published in May 2020 found that the contract had been illegal.
PP’s report also confirmed the shocking financial waste at the heart of the deal: of the R230 million paid to the Blackhead Consulting-Diamond Hill joint venture, only R21.3 million went to cover project costs. Therefore, those involved in the scheme had made more than 200 million rand in pure profit.
The contract had been classified as irregular by the Auditor General as early as July 2015, but the Mokhesi department continued to make payments to the joint venture.
Hawks Free State spokeswoman Petty Officer Lynda Steyn said the DPCI would release a statement about the arrests later Wednesday. DM
